journal article·2026-04Open access

Self‐Healing and pH‐Robust Hydrogels Enabled by Synergistic Supramolecular Interactions for Injectable Gastrointestinal Wound Repair

Li Xiang, Lei Liu, Shixin Zhang, Yuhao Zhang, Ziqian Zhao, Jiangwei Chen, Jiawen Zhang, Jingyi Hu, Yunfei Chen, Hongbo Zeng

Small· Volume 22· Issue 21

Abstract

ABSTRACT Injectable self‐healing hydrogels are promising biomaterials for minimally invasive internal wound repair. However, most hydrogels fail in the gastrointestinal tract, where extreme pH fluctuations, from strong acidity to mild alkalinity, disrupt conventional cross‐linking interactions and lead to network dissociation. In this work, we report an injectable self‐healing and pH‐robust hydrogel dressing that withstands diverse gastrointestinal conditions by leveraging cooperative supramolecular interactions. Specifically, the integration of π‐cation‐π and hydrophobic interactions imparts the hydrogel with exceptional thermo‐responsiveness, high injectability, rapid in situ gelation property, and robust self‐healing capability, independent of environmental fluctuations. Furthermore, the hydrogel effectively resists bacterial adhesion and prevents biofouling, owing to the strong hydration shell formed by the hydrophilic chains within the network. In vivo studies using rat models demonstrate that the hydrogel readily adapts to both gastric and intestinal wound sites, simplifying the surgical procedure compared with sutures and commercial barrier films, which significantly reduces postoperative complications such as adhesion and inflammation while accelerating the healing of gastrointestinal perforations. This work establishes a supramolecular design strategy for engineering multifunctional, environment‐adaptive biomaterials, opening new avenues for internal wound repair and other challenging biomedical applications.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Wound Healing and Treatments · Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications · Supramolecular Self-Assembly in Materials

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

School of Mechanical Engineering Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Design and Manufacturing of Precision Medicine Equipment Southeast University Nanjing China

Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering University of Alberta Edmonton Alberta Canada

Department of Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery Yancheng First Hospital Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School Yancheng China

School of Materials Science and Engineering State Key Laboratory of Engineering Materials for Major Infrastructure Southeast University Nanjing China

Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine (Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine) Nanjing China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province

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